France taps Oberthur for eID operating system
18 November, 2013
category: Government
Oberthur Technologies announced that its multifunction operating system has been selected by French State Printing Group to equip the new electronic driving licenses in France. Oberthur Technologies has provided electronic secure components for passports, driving licenses, resident permits and civil servants cards to the French State Printing Group since 2009.
For the launch of the new electronic French driving license, Oberthur will deliver the operating system embedded in each driving license. The state security forces can only read the card.
France is recognized as one of the most advanced countries regarding identity document protection. Faced with increasing identity fraud and impersonation, Oberthur’s electronic credentials enable end-users to authenticate and authorities to reduce fraud while protecting citizens’ personal information.
Oberthur Technologies also supplied French health care professionals with credentials, delivering more than 1 million health care cards for professionals across France. Oberthur enables 18 health professions — doctors, pharmacists, dentists, etc. — to identify the cardholder and secure transactions, while respecting privacy.
Electronic driver license yet to take off
Not many countries are issuing smart card driver licenses. Market analyst IHS Inc. estimates that some 1.4 billion driver licenses are currently in circulation around the globe, a figure that is bested only by national IDs. The number of smart driver’s licenses, however, is minuscule representing only 12% of all driving credentials issued by year’s end 2012.
The market is also looking at slow growth. IHS states that eDLs are still a ways out with global penetration expected to grow from 12% at present to just 20% by 2018. There are a few reasons for this sluggish adoption, not the least of which could be sparse automotive penetration in a number of national populations in the Middle East, Asia and other regions.